Countless types of biological assay, chemical assay, immunoassay or similar assays and tests are known in the biological, chemical, forensic, genomic, medical and genetic arts. Many of these assays or tests feature the detection of a substance or analyte which has been marked or otherwise associated with a tag which makes detection easier, faster, more reliable or otherwise improved.
Known tags may be limited in many ways. For example the tag may be difficult to associate with an analyte or it may be difficult to detect, in particular known tags may be difficult to detect rapidly, accurately or in very small quantities. Known tags may be subject to degradation. Known tags may alter the properties of or otherwise interact with the material or analyte being detected. In addition known tags and families of tags may not include enough members to allow for highly multiplexed tests where numerous independent types of tags are distinctly read or sorted.
The present invention is directed toward overcoming one or more of the problems discussed above.